3D printing of objects by integrated touch and sensors

According to the recent report from researchers at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada have found a new method to 3D print the objects by simple touch and pressure sensors. PrintPut works by embedding interactivity directly into 3D prints. It contains a conductive filament which allows the designers to incorporate the elements into 3D designs, like buttons, pressure sensors, sliders, touchpads and flex sensors.

According to Queen’s professor Roel Vertegaal and students Jesse Burstyn, Nicholas Fellion, and Paul Strohmeier, it allows product developers and designers to create a prototype model that is just not limited to the looks but also have same behavior and feel.

PrintPut is master in resolving some issues that were related to touch , for ex, it can now easily wrap around the non planar objects. as earlier flexible touch interfaces have difficulty seamlessly wrapping around many non-planar objects. which has over come by using many independent sensors.

PrintPut’s has its main components that is ABS filament, a dual-extruder 3D printer, and a series of scripts to generate conductive geometry. This design creates a 3D model of the object, that is imported to 3D builder manager and all geometry standards are met accordingly. Once the object is printed , the sensors takes up the values by easily reading it on an Arduino or other microcontroller with alligator clips.